55,837 Global MEREDITH Family Members

MEREDITH Family History

This surname comes from the Welsh personal male name, Meredudd, and its anglicised form, Meredith. In some cases this name, when it came to be used as a surname in England, was further anglicised to Merridew.

As a surname it is therefore patronymic and refers back to an ancestor who may have lived many centuries ago. It is an ancient Welsh name which dates back to at least the 9th century when it was recorded as Morgetuid or Margetiud. The exact origins and meaning of the name are uncertain, but it is believed that the first element of the word comes from the Welsh word 'mawr', meaning 'great', and that the second element 'udd' comes from the Old Welsh for 'lord'. The name would thus mean 'great lord'. Some other etymologists have presented the theory that it may derive from the Welsh 'marwddydd' (mortal day), or 'mawrddydd' (great day).

By the 12th century, the name was recorded as Maredud and Maredudd, with the stress or accent placed on the second syllable as per the Welsh custom. Meredith and Meredyth became popular spellings in the 14th century.

One of the earliest recorded bearers of the given name Meredith was Maredud ap Ywein (Meredith son of Owain), recorded in the Brut y Tywysogion, in 985.

As a surname, it was recorded in different parts of Wales, but also in adjacent English counties, including Shropshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.

During the late 16th and early 17th centuries it was relatively popular in Montgomeryshire, and references to it are fairly numerous on the county's parish registers as a given name and patronymic surname.

By the first half of the 19th century it appears on the censuses in all Welsh counties, with particularly notable clusters in Radnorshire, Breconshire, Montgomeryshire and Monmouthshire.

Notable people

• Billy Meredith (1874–1958), Welsh soccer player regarded as one of the first superstars of the game. Born in Chirk, Denbighshire, he played for Manchester City and Manchester United, and gained 48 caps for Wales.
• Burgess Meredith (1907–1997), American actor, born in Cleveland, Ohio, best known for his role as The Penguin in the Batman TV series of the 1960s.
• George Meredith (1828–1909), English novelist and poet, born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, whose works include The Egoist and Diana of the Crossways.

 

SOURCES:

A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (1896) by Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley

Homes of Family Names in Great Britain (1890) by Henry Brougham Guppy

Surnames of the United Kingdom (1912) by Henry Harrison

Welsh Surnames (1985), T.J. Morgan, Prys Morgan, University of Wales Press